Arron Banks to be quizzed on links to Russia after leaked emails show secret meetings with Putin envoy

Leave.EU founder Arron Banks reportedly discussed business opportunities with Russia during and after the Brexit referendum.

Millionaire businessman Banks made donations to UKIP and bankrolled his own Leave.EU campaign, and leaked emails shown to the Sunday Times show that Banks and his communications director Andy Wigmore discussed business deals with Russian officials and met with them several times.

Banks’ book The Bad Boys of Brexit details one meeting with Putin envoy Alexander Yakovenko in September 2015.

But the emails show they met him on a second occasion that year, shortly after they, along with Nigel Farage, met with Donald Trump in New York.

Banks also visited Russia in February 2016 reportedly to discuss a business deal involving Russian goldmines, but Banks claimed visas in his passport prove this trip didn’t happen.

It won’t come as a surprise after 4 whole pages, the Sunday Times made a few mistakes. My passport shows two visas Oct 14 & March 15. family trips to visits to my Russian in laws. https://t.co/UsxJFzoGCO

But MP Damian Green, who’s chairing the investigation, tweeted later that day that the pair had changed their minds.

The hearing is now set to go ahead tomorrow (Tuesday 12 June) as planned.

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock has called for Scotland Yard to launch a criminal investigation in addition to the parliamentary inquiry.

Something’s clearly up. @Arron_banks and @andywigmore now say they do want to give evidence to @CommonsCMS on Tuesday because of story that’s about to come out about some emails - which I don’t have a copy of btw. Must be significant, to make them change their minds again

“I think it’s important we ask those questions of him. We also want to ask him about the work Cambridge Analytica did for Leave.EU before the referendum, and also the way Leave.EU used data and creative datasets to target their own messaging during the referendum.”

Collins said that while meeting Russian officials in itself was not against the law, the nature of the meetings was unknown.

“What we want to understand is more about the nature of that contact and the frequency of it. Why was it there was more contact than he previously wanted to disclose? These meetings weren’t included in his book The Bad Boys of Brexit, which details a lot of his life around that time.”